As the Internet's popularity grows, more businesses are establishing a presence on the Internet. These businesses typically set up web sites that run one or more web applications. One disadvantage of doing business on the Internet is that if the web site goes down, becomes unresponsive or otherwise is not properly serving customers, the business is losing potential sales and/or customers. Similar issues exist with Intranets and Extranets. Thus, there is a need to monitor live web applications and web sites to make sure that they are running properly.
IT management personnel are often given the responsibility of detecting when a computer or software system is performing poorly. These personnel are rarely given guidance as to the definition of “performing poorly,” nor do they have much knowledge of the systems under their management. This presents a particular challenge to monitoring these systems effectively.